River View not going back to voters in November
WARSAW – The River View Board of Education decided at its recent meeting not to go forward with a resolution to put their bond issue and tax levy back on the November ballot.
“Eighty percent of the voters said no and only 20 percent supported it plus we had a large voter turnout,” said Dalton Summers, River View Local School District superintendent. “We consider that a very accurate depiction of what the public thought of our Ohio School Facilities Commission plan.”
If the bond issue and tax levy would have passed after the special election on Aug. 2, River View would have closed all four of its existing elementary buildings and placed students in one new building that would have been attached to the junior high school. The junior high school and high school also would have received renovations to today’s codes and the Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC) standards. Nineteen percent of the project would have been paid for by the Ohio School Facilities Commission and the rest would have been funded by tax payers. The state’s share would have been $9,020,226 and the local share would have been $43,456,780.
“This probably was the last OSFC plan that we would have been able to take advantage of state money and unfortunately it was the cheapest plan using OSFC money,” Summers said. “We have everyone’s attention now though and even had people at our last board meeting. We have to take advantage of the fact that we have everyone’s ear and get back out there and show them what our issues are and get their thoughts on what they can support.”
Right now the school district is focused on listening, evaluating and educating.
“A lot of people that voted no are not people that don’t support River View,” Summers said. “We know from our renewal levies that we typically have good support from the community. We have to find those people and ask them why they voted no. We know money is a number one issue, but there might be other issues out there too. The money is going to have to come down somehow, which means the scope of the project will have to be shortened and it won’t have the same impact Pre-K through 12th grade. Our elementaries are our biggest issues though with a couple of them being bigger than others.”
The board’s goal is to have a potential solution to its problems to bring to the voters this spring.
“Our problems still exist and we are going to have to make changes,” Summers said.
Category: Education
